CHAMBERSBURG - He's not quite as tall as the Great Wall, but in a wrestling room full of tough guys, Dawson Peck makes his teammates look like fifth graders.
"I get asked a lot, 'How tall is he?'" said Tanner Shoap, a junior at Chambersburg High School, who wrestles at 113 lbs.
Peck is 6'8"-- 6'9" with shoes on -- and is likely the tallest high school wrestler in North America.
And yes, he's knows what your thinking. Everybody asks him, 'why aren't you playing basketball?'
"I started wrestling when I was in first grade," said Peck, "before I was, like, gigantic."
This giant grew to love takedowns, not rebounds; as well as the one-on-one nature of wrestling. "You could be Michael Jordan, and if the rest of your team isn't any good, your team is not any good," added Peck.
The last high school wrestler that is Peck's height was 6'8" Marshal Ash of Milaca (MN) High School, according to research conducted by CBS 21 News. Ash, who won a Minnesota state championship, graduated in 2010.
Still, being tall is not a problem for Dawson. Putting on weight is an issue, however. The last time he tipped the scales, he weighed 239.5 pounds. That's the heaviest he's ever been.
Peck is currently wrestling at the district championships in Hershey. He had missed most of this season recovering from elbow surgery.
Even though he looks like a power forward, Peck wrestles in the heavyweight division; against 280 pounders who like to push and shove around their opponents.
"When he wrestles, he doesn't wrestle like a heavyweight," said coach Doug Rine. "He wrestles like a middleweight and that's a tough style for heavyweights to wrestle."
In other words, because of his height, he can finish moves that others can't.
"I'm able to get a high waist in and reach the whole way around the person's back," said Peck, the state runner-up last year, while demonstrating.
"Which makes it real hard to get out of."
Peck could be even harder to handle in a couple of years. He has committed to Virginia Tech, which is one of the top programs in the nation, and hopes to weigh 265 or 270 lbs.
By then he could be towering over everyone -- as a national champion.
